A new study found that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects 23 percent of stroke survivors.
The research was published online Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. According to the study, 11 percent of stroke victims surveyed more than a year after the event experienced PTSD.
A stroke happens when an artery is blocked or bursts, causing damage to the brain and potentially impairing speech, sight and motor control. The study also included victims of a mini-stroke, which is similar to a stroke but only lasts a few minutes.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder characterized by a traumatic that can cause many symptoms: flashbacks, nightmares, avoiding memory triggers about the event and hyper-vigilance.
According to the Los Angeles Times, strokes kill about 137,000 people per year in the United States. Research lead Donald Edmondson, an assistant professor at Columbia University, to establish "that PTSD is common among heart attack survivors and that it is linked to an increased risk of later developing heart disease." These links lead his research team to then question how often stroke victims develop PTSD.
"For something especially acute and scary like a stroke, we wondered: Why couldn't that be a trigger for PTSD?" Dr. Ian Kronish, a general internist at Columbia and part of the research team, told the LA Times.
According to the LA Times, data from nine studies were combined for a total of 1,138 participants in the U.S. or Europe, and "all participants were assessed for PTSD between one and 60 months after the stroke."
The new study said PTSD was common for 23 percent of participants a year of the stroke, and 11 percent of stroke victims still had the disorder more than a year later. Kronish told the LA Times he was surprised by the findings.
"1 in 4 is a big number," Kronish said. "Until doing this research, I hadn't really thought of PTSD being due to a medical event."
Researchers plan to further examine how mental health intervention may reduce symptoms specifically in stroke victims, according to the LA Times.
